Costume Quest

Costume Quest 2 was developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Midnight City Games. It was released on October 31, 2014 for $14.99 on Xbox 360 and Xbox One. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Appropriately released just before Halloween, Costume Quest 2 has more tricks, treats and timed-button pushes. The sequel to Double Fine's 2010 Costume Quest, this release picks up shortly after the first game. The two main protagonists, Reynold and Wren, return as playable characters with new companions to battle alongside with, and, not to be forgotten, the supporting cast from the first game, which play an important role in the time-traveling tale.

Following their bankruptcy filings in late January, game publishers THQ and Atari have recently seen several of their XBLA titles delisted from the Xbox Marketplace. The XBLA games in question can still be found on the Xbox Marketplace, but they can no longer be purchased. A total of four THQ-published XBLA games have been pulled:

Only one Atari game is currently unavailable: Warlords, which was first released on Nov 14, 2012. Yar's Revenge, which debuted on March 3, 2011, was temporarily taken down but has since burst back onto the scene, albeit at half of its former 800 MSP price tag. Haunted House, another Xbox Live Arcade game published by Atari, is also currently selling at half price (400 MSP). And finally The Undergarden is selling at 240 MSP which is 70% discount of its original price of 800 MSP.

Five Xbox Live Arcade titles, including two from Double Fine, have had their prices temporarily cut. Costume Quest, Stacking, Voltron, Warhammer 40K: Kill Team and Apples to Apples have all seen price reductions of 50% as part of the THQ Publisher Sale. The deal applies to both Gold and Silver account members. In addition, all downloadable content for Stacking, Costume Quest and Apples to Apples has been reduced to half price. But are the games any good?

XBLA Primer is an on-going feature in which we delve into the history of a given developer, catalog their XBLA releases, and look at why they make great games.

Way back in the 1980's, a game designer named Tim Schafer started to make a name for himself at LucasArts. Working on and later leading development on cult classics such as Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island and Grim Fandango, Mr. Schafer quickly garnered a reputation around the industry as one of the most creative minds in the business. At the turn of the century, Schafer left LucasArts and started his own development studio which came to be known as Double Fine Productions.

Double Fine blew out of the gates with a platformer named Psychonauts, a game that literally put you inside the minds of others. You can only imagine the crazy things you'd find in the depths of people's minds. Next up, Double Fine released Brutal Legend, an action/real-time strategy hybrid centered around the fantasy world of heavy metal. While both Psychonauts and Brutal Legend were received very well by critics and gamers alike, neither game managed to create the bucket loads of cash that publishers now look for.

Hey guys, we're bringing you a new feature that's simple and helpful in nature, the XBLAFans Monthly Roundup! This as well as other features will be seen a lot more should all things go accordingly, and we'll even have some new ones on the way, so stay tuned because there's a lot of awesome in the works here at XBLAFans.

If it wasn't obvious by the title, this post will be your one-stop-shop to anything that happened this month with links to all our posts and excerpts where applicable. That means news, reviews, guides, features, interviews, podcasts, and even a recount of releases and sales data. Hit the jump for so many links you'll never not know something about XBLA current events again!Read More